BBC One to adapt J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy

The Corporation says Rowling “will collaborate closely”with the project” which is being overseen by an independent production company operated by Neil Blair on behalf of Rowling’s representatives, The Blair Partnership.

The number and length of the episodes to be decided once work to adapt the novel has formally begun. The series is expected to air in 2014.

The novel is set in Pagford, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils… Pagford is not what it first seems.

J.K. Rowling said: “I’m thrilled that the BBC has commissioned The Casual Vacancy. I always felt that, if it were to be adapted, this novel was best suited to television and I think the BBC is the perfect home.”

BBC One Controller Danny Cohen added: “It is thrilling to be bringing the work of J.K. Rowling to BBC One audiences. J.K. Rowling’s story-telling is of course peerless in its popularity, and I am looking forward to collaborating with her.

“This project highlights the ambition and scale of BBC One Drama, as well as the ability of modern television to attract the world’s biggest talent and most exciting creative ideas.”